LOS ANGELES, CA.- Acclaimed for her contemporary and intimate depictions of the human form, Kuhn takes a new direction into abstraction in her latest series She Disappeared into Complete Silence. Photographed at a golden modernist structure on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, architectural lines, light reflections and a single figure have been carefully balanced against the backdrop of the Californian desert.

"She Disappeared into Complete Silence was photographed in a glass house where the golden light enters unobstructed. Conceptually speaking, this glass house with mirrored ceilings was an extension of my own camera and optics.

I was drawn to the desert because of its magical light and raw mystic landscape. The house itself is a minimal structure held mostly together by glass, built by architect Robert Stone. These translucent surfaces offered a great setting for reflections and at times worked as a prism for the light.

Together with a long time friend Jacintha, we experimented with reflections, shadows, illusions, and created images that push the boundaries of representation. I wanted to escape the body and photograph the human presence coming in and out of evidence, at times over exposed, at times hidden in shadows, like a desert mirage, a solitary figure who could have been the very first or last.

The title She Disappeared into Complete Silence was carefully chosen for multiple references. This series is a balance between the figure, abstraction and landscape. The word She has unfolding meanings. It refers not just to the single figure, but also the endless horizon lines running into infinity, and the lines rendered from thoughts." - Mona Kuhn

Mona Kuhn is best known for her large-scale photographs of the human form. Her approach is unusual in that she develops close relationships with her subjects, resulting in images of remarkable intimacy, and creating the effect of people naked but comfortable in their own skin. In addition, Kuhn's playful combination of visual strategies, such as translucency explores our connectedness with the environment. A sublime sense of comfort and intelligence permeates her works, showing the human body in its most natural state while simultaneously re-envisioning the nude as a contemporary canon of art.

Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. In 1989, Kuhn moved to the US and earned her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Mona Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debuted by Steidl in 2004; followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux Series (2011), and Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018-2019). Occasionally, Mona teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Mona Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Kiyosato Museum in Japan. Kuhn's work has been exhibited at The Louvre Museum and Le Bal in Paris; The Whitechapel Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London; Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Leopold Museum in Vienna, and Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.

Mona Kuhn lives and works in Los Angeles.